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    Dell Studio 1558 fan running all the time

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by scb19, Apr 29, 2011.

  1. scb19

    scb19 Newbie

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    I have a strange problem with my Dell Studio 1558.
    I got it just last September (2010) and run Windows 7 on one partition and Ubuntu (Lucid Lynx) on another partition. I set it up this way originally so it is not new.
    I have spent a lot of time in Ubuntu lately and have noticed in the last couple of months that when I boot into Windows the fan runs all the time, even when I don't have much running. I'm in the process of doing scans to see if I have a virus but so far nothing is showing up. I have noticed that explorer.exe is using about 60 MB of RAM which seems high.
    Another strange thing is that when I boot into Ubuntu the fan is not on all the time - only when I do something like rip a CD or DVD, and then I would expect it.
    Given this it seems the problem is with the Windows partition, but I want to rule out hardware problems.
    Anyone have a similar problem? It seems that a year or so ago folks with Studios were running into fan troubles that were hardware related. Could that be happening here even though it's not a problem in Ubuntu?
    Thanks for any advice -
     
  2. scaper28

    scaper28 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Have you ran coretemp or another CPU temp program to see what temps you are at as It could be a build up of dust In the fan

    My dell studio 1558 seems to idle around 43 then climb to 55 then the fan cuts In and takes it back down to low 40s then it builds up again and so on
     
  3. scb19

    scb19 Newbie

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    Thanks for the advice on CoreTemp - my cores were running at around 55-65 degrees celsius which is too high given that I wasn't really do anything, just looking at task manager.
    I cleaned the fan, no improvement so I guess it was not that dirty.
    Then I went and did a diagnostic startup in msconfig. Once it rebooted I opened CoreTemp and it looked good - temps in the 30's. I wrote down the processes that were not causing problems from that test.
    Then I changed my setup and added more startup items, including the pretty Windows 7 GUI stuff. Everything seems fine so far. I'm guessing there is some process that is causing a problem. If I get some time I might do more reboots adding back more items, but I honestly I prefer a cleaner startup.
    Anyway, problem is not hardware related, just some bad windows settings.
    Thanks for the help -
     
  4. woofer00

    woofer00 Wanderer

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    55-65C is not that bad on the CPU. That's my running temp on my 1558 w/i7 and a discrete GPU creating additional heat. The CPU will be fine up to around 90C, at which point it will throttle down hard.